This mural is in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, on the street side of the organization of “Youth with a Mission” on Ellis Street. This area in San Francisco is notorious for its problems with drugs sales and a as center for homelessness in the city. However the Tenderloin is also known for the intense community efforts to improve the area by providing opportunities for student outreach, care and education. The Amnesty International San Francisco office has coordinated this mural as a venue for students to empower themselves and beautify their own living space.

Approximately 40 youth were involved in the creation of the mural. Students from 1st grade thru high school and from various after school and summer programs came together to paint their own piece of the San Francisco Cityscape.

The mural is eight feet by six and a half feet. The San Francisco cityscape at the bottom of the mural is a silhouette below the sky. The sky has been tessellated with puzzle pieces. Each person taking part of the mural got their own puzzle “piece” to illustrate their part of San Francisco. To the right of the mural are names of all the artists involved.

This block of Mason Street is looking so much brighter now that Glide has moved into the block. This is on the outside of GLIDE Economic Development Corporation’s 149 Mason Street Studios, an eight-story building which features 56 furnished studio apartments designed for people who have been chronically homeless.

The colorful tiles are by an Johanna Poething. Her prolific amount of work has shown up in this website many, many times. According to her website Johanna Poethig is a visual, public and performance artist who has exhibited internationally and has been actively creating public art works, murals, paintings, sculpture and multimedia installations for over 25 years

Walking this section of Mason street, I noticed a profound difference in its essence. It was far cleaner, and brighter than I remembered from the past. This is most definitely due to two new housing buildings that have recently gone up. This one is 125 Mason Street and is the GEDC Family housing. Glide Economic Developement Committee is part of the Glide Memorial Family. The front of the building is covered with these wonderful three dimensional sayings, that lend a sense of respect to the building.

The installation is by Mildred Howard. The Chronicle describes Howard thusly: Mildred Howard takes full advantage of the latitude that modernism won for artists in the use of materials and expressive idioms. She has used photographs, glass, architecture, housewares and other found objects of all kinds.

Because she maneuvers so freely within the conceptually soft borders of “installation” work, people tend to think of her as a sculptor, but she prefers the vaguer, more open term artist.

A native San Franciscan, Howard, began her adult creative life as a dancer before shifting her energies to visual art.

Her work has appeared in exhibitions around the world and has garnered numerous awards, including the San Francisco Art Institute’s Adaline Kent Award, and fellowships from the Flintridge and Rockefeller foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Art and Architecture is proud of the fact that there are over 1000 pieces of art represented here. However, we also realize that is a lot of images to search if you are standing on the street corner wondering what you are looking at. Please utilize the neighborhood pull-down list below to help in narrowing your search.